Keith Wilbur Santa Quotations

This was our first home game this year against a ranked team and having a big crowd really adds energy to the game and our players definitely feed off of that. The student athletes at Santa Clara have a mutual respect for one another so having them all cheering for the team really made us want to play well in front of them.

Overall, it was a productive weekend. Three games in one day was challenging, but pulling out a close game to start off the day was really good for team confidence and playing UC Santa Barbara will only make us better.

Playing in front of a big crowd always adds to the level of excitement for a home game, and it will definitely help our team. Having fellow student athletes as a part of that crowd will help even more. Our team has a lot of respect for all the athletes at Santa Clara, and having players from every sports team at Santa Clara in attendance is going to be cool. I'm sure it is going to give our team extra incentive to perform well against Princeton and Cal State Monterey Bay.

Santa Cruz has very good speed this year. The last time we played them, we had a hard time scoring on the counter attack. We expect a similar type game, so we are going to have to play good defense and execute well in our half court offense and 6-on-5 opportunities.

Santa Barbara is a very good team. They are currently ranked No. 10, and more than anything, we will expect them to be really physical. This will be a good opportunity for us to see if we learned and improved upon some things from playing Davis because it will probably be a similar type of game.

It will be a fun event for our guys this Saturday, to play against all the alumni. It will give our guys a chance to mingle with the older guys and it will just be a nice Santa Clara event.

It's been a great class. Their freshmen year was the first year I got hired at Santa Clara and the program has improved every year they've been here. Hopefully they will finish their careers on a high note at the Western Water Polo Association Championships.

Davis was a tough loss, but we are not going to dwell on it. There are areas we need to improve upon from the Davis game, and we are focusing on those things this week in practice. Having quality games this weekend at Santa Barbara is good for us because it gives us a chance to get right back into it.